


Inexorable

by thedevilchicken



Category: Batman Begins (2005)
Genre: Drabble Sequence, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Post-Movie(s), Quintuple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-22
Updated: 2008-11-22
Packaged: 2018-04-06 19:39:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4234173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Batman visits the asylum.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inexorable

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Livejournal on 22 November 2008.

It's odd for him, being in Arkham. 

He's seen it from both sides, initially behind his desk in an office that's someone else's now. His name stayed on the door three weeks after his escape, they say. Even after his replacement came, Jonathan Crane lingered. 

They boxed his things and stored them in the basement, his books, certificates behind glass they likely cracked in transit. He'll get them back one day, he's sure, but for now the asylum's his life. 

A patient now, he sits in his room, his room that's never dark. He'll always come back to this place. 

\---

For weeks, he barely leaves his room. 

They don't like to call them cells, he still knows the protocol: they're patients not inmates, there's Blackgate for that. He says the words regardless when his doctor brings him out, just because he knows they'll rankle. 

Then it's the rec room, where he's watched like a hawk - his testimony brought many of these people in and then his toxin made the arrangement permanent. It's punishment; patient psychoanalysing doctor, deadly accurate, always bodes ill. 

He whispers to them in the night, ugly things and eloquent. He knows all of their fears. 

He'll survive. 

\---

When Batman comes to visit, Dr. Crane isn't surprised. Scarecrow is. 

Batman can enter; Jonathan knows, isn't surprised to find that flaw hasn't been rectified. The lights go out then there he is. Jonathan remembers that night he saw the bat beneath the Bat, the fear he felt, still does. He fights so it won't consume him. 

He's come before, once for the Joker but never for him. He's scared but not of death; Batman believes he's above that, at least for now. 

They don't talk about redemption - they don't talk at all. Dr. Crane knows why. Scarecrow never will. 

\---

One patient there eats crayons they use for art therapy. Jonathan muses aloud in his session if crayons can kill and then frowns, looks appalled; his doctor prescribes a new medicine. It won't work. 

It's not MPD, he's just playing a part and a part he knows well. He manifests symptoms so subtle the doctors can't help but believe and sits back, amused beneath masks. Then he leaves for his room, his cell, lies awake to see if tonight's the night the Batman will come. 

He closes his eyes as he kisses that mouth. When he wakes, the Batman's gone. 

\---

Arkham can't hold him, he's always known. Escape's an inevitability. 

Neatly instigated riots provide cover, the Joker, the Riddler and him. He knows the way by heart, leads them to the Narrows; Batman's expected but doesn't appear. Joker huffs, odder sans facepaint. Riddler just bores him. They leave - so does he. 

There's a place he'll build a lab, start again till Batman finds him. He's not scared - Batman's psyche isn't his concern, or hands beneath those gloves he wants to bruise him. What scares him is he knows that he left sanity a hundred miles behind. 

And Arkham's always waiting.


End file.
